German imperialism, representing at present the greatest progress not only in military power and military technology, but also in large industrial organizations within the framework of capitalism, has signified, among other things, its economic progressiveness by being the first among states to effect the transition to compulsory labor service. It is understandable that under the conditions of capitalist society in general, and especially under the conditions of monarchical states waging imperialist war, compulsory labor service is nothing other than a military-penal prison for workers, a new means of enslaving the toiling and exploited masses, a new system of measures for suppressing any protest from these masses. Nevertheless, it remains undeniable that only thanks to the economic preconditions created by large-scale capitalism could such a reform have been placed on the agenda and could have been implemented. And now, we, under the conditions created by the incredible post-war devastation, undoubtedly must place such a reform among one of the foremost tasks. But it is clear that Soviet power, making the transition from the capitalist organization of society to the socialist, must begin the implementation of compulsory labor service in an altogether different way from how German imperialism began to implement it. For the capitalists and imperialists of Germany, compulsory labor service meant the enslavement of workers. For the workers and poorest peasants of Russia, compulsory labor service must mean, first and foremost and above all, the conscription to the performance of their public duty of the rich and propertied classes. We must begin implementing compulsory labor service with the rich.

The necessity of this flows, generally speaking, not only from the fact that the Soviet Republic is a socialist republic. The necessity of this flows also from the fact that it is precisely the rich and propertied classes, through their resistance, both military and passive (sabotage), who have most of all hindered the work of healing Russia from the wounds inflicted upon it by war—the work of economic recovery and advancement of the country. And therefore the accounting and control, which must now be placed at the center of all state administration, must be demanded first and foremost from the representatives of the rich and propertied classes. It is precisely the representatives of these classes who took advantage of the tribute which they collected from the toilers in especially large amounts during the war; it is precisely they who used this tribute to exempt themselves from the fulfillment of the obligations binding upon every citizen to participate in the healing of the country and in its renewal; it is precisely they who used the plunder they seized to entrench themselves and dig in at an impregnable stronghold and to offer every possible resistance to the victory of the socialist principle of the organization of society over the capitalist. One of the chief means of such struggle against Soviet power and against socialism for the rich and propertied classes was the possession of significant reserves of monetary tokens. The wealth of the propertied classes in capitalist society consisted first and foremost in the fact that they possessed land and other means of production: factories, plants, and so forth. It was not difficult for Soviet power, thanks to the support of workers and the enormous majority of peasants, to abolish the right of landowners and the bourgeoisie to this fundamental form of the country's wealth. It was not difficult to decree the abolition of private property in land. It was not difficult to nationalize the majority of factories and plants. There is no doubt that the nationalization of the remaining large industrial enterprises and means of transport represents a task that will easily be accomplished in the very near future.

But capitalist society has created another form of wealth, with which Soviet power finds it far from easy to settle accounts. This form of wealth is money, or more precisely—monetary tokens. During the war, the issue of monetary tokens reached especially vast proportions. Russia was cut off by a wall of military operations from commercial intercourse with a whole series of countries which had previously participated most in the import and export with Russia. And the accumulation of monetary tokens in the hands of the rich and propertied classes, who almost universally participated, both directly and indirectly, in speculation on high prices from military supplies and contracts—the accumulation of a vast quantity of monetary tokens is one of the chief ways of accumulating wealth and accumulating the power of the propertied classes over the toilers. At the present time, the economic position of Russia—as indeed of probably every capitalist country that has lived through a three-year war—the economic position of Russia is characterized by the fact that in the hands of a relatively small minority of the bourgeoisie and propertied classes there are concentrated and hidden by them gigantic reserves of monetary tokens, which have been greatly devalued by the enormous issue of paper money, but which nevertheless still represent at this moment testimony to the right to levy tribute from the toiling population.

In the transition from capitalist society to socialist society, it appears to be completely impossible to do without monetary tokens or to replace them in a short span of time with new ones. Before Soviet power now stands a difficult task, which nevertheless must be solved at all costs—the task of struggle against the resistance of the rich—resistance that takes the form of hoarding and concealing testimony to the levying of tribute from the toilers. Such testimony is represented by monetary tokens. Of course, to the extent that these monetary tokens previously gave the right to acquire, to purchase means of production, for example land, factories, plants, and so forth, to that extent the significance of these monetary tokens falls and even becomes completely null. For the purchase of land has already become impossible in Russia after the promulgation of the law on the socialization of land, and the purchase of factories and plants, as well as similar large means of production and transport, has become almost impossible thanks to the rapidly proceeding process of nationalization and confiscation of all such large enterprises. This means that acquiring monetary sums for the purchase of means of production is becoming increasingly difficult and almost impossible for the representatives of the bourgeoisie and propertied classes (including the peasant bourgeoisie). But, defending their old privileges and striving to slow down and make as difficult as possible the work of the socialist transformation of the country, the bourgeoisie hoards and conceals their testimony to a share in the common wealth, their testimony to the levying of tribute from the toilers, hoards and conceals monetary tokens in order to secure for themselves at least some chance of preserving their position and of restoring the old privileges in case of difficulties or crises of a military or commercial character that may still befall Russia.

As for articles of consumption, the possibility of acquiring them with sums of monetary tokens accumulated through speculation during the war has remained with the bourgeoisie and the propertied classes almost entirely, because the task of proper rationing, proper distribution of these articles of consumption in such a country as Russia, with the enormous quantity of petty peasant and petty artisan or cottage industry strata of the population—this task represents enormous difficulties, and under the conditions of devastation created by war, this task still remains almost unsolved. And thus, accounting and control over the production and distribution of products, Soviet power is forced to begin with organized struggle against the rich and propertied classes, who are concealing from all state control enormous sums of monetary tokens.

It can be considered that approximately 30 billion rubles in monetary tokens have now been issued in Russia. Of this sum, probably not less than 20 billion, and possibly considerably more, represents a reserve that is completely unnecessary for commercial circulation and that is hoarded, concealed, hidden away by representatives of the bourgeoisie and propertied classes for selfish—or selfish class—purposes.

Soviet power will have to combine the introduction of compulsory labor service with the registration, first and foremost, of representatives of the bourgeoisie and propertied classes; will have to demand a declaration (declaration) corresponding to the truth concerning the quantity of monetary tokens in their possession; will have to adopt a series of measures to ensure that this demand does not remain merely on paper; will have to work out transitional measures for concentrating all reserves of monetary tokens in the State Bank or in its branches. Without measures of this kind, accounting and control over the production and distribution of products cannot be brought to completion.